Footsteps
by yume girl 91
Summary: I remember you, do you remember me? Ulquixoc two-shot give it a read!


Disclaimer: don't own Bleach. A/N: about this two-shot…well there's not much to say. Ahem, on with the story! Enjoy :)

~~~The end~~~prologue

Ashes do not remember. How can they when they are all that's left after a fire consumes that which once had shape, form, and purpose? Particularly those whom forget better left memories alone. That was one thing to remember, he thought before the trash Kurosaki ended his existence at his request.

The dead were never meant to interact with the living.

~~~A girl named Kurai~~~

Humans were fragile, fickle creatures. Indecision and betrayal were just a part of their makeup. He didn't know how it had happened. Blood, red and thick flowed from a gash to his torso, his white jacket fluttered in scraps exposing his wounded chest. The air freezing chilled those humans whom couldn't see him but felt an indefinable breath of discomfort, as he brushed past them, eager to leave the city.

His steps faltered and he raised his hand to open a Garganta. His hand trembled violently, body rocking. Someone then, as he shuddered once more and crumpled down, caught him. Arms slid around, cradling him close as the intersection lights changed and cars whizzed past them. "Whoops. Seems like I caught you in time," said a girl's voice in his ear.

It was a human, he was sure of it. What was left of his Pesquisa didn't pick up any spiritual pressure off the female, though she continued to hold him up from behind even when the crosswalk came on and the other worthless humans walked on by, shooting her peculiar looks.

He imagined for a second how it must look to them.

The girl dropped her head, laughing softly against his back. "I've done it again. Hmph…crazy old Kurai," she mumbled to herself. Ulquiorra looked down at his bleeding chest and where the girl's two small hands were clasped. Red stained them. He closed his eyes, fading fast.

~~~Doctor~~~

"Dad, is it—?"

"Serious to be sure…but," the voice of an older man paused, Ulquiorra could sense them standing a little to the side of where he lay. "I've just never seen a man have a hole straight through the body and still be living!"

"Dad!"

"Sorry, Ai. Just the doctor in me wants to—"

"I'll call you if there's any change." Kurai said firmly, her feet padded across the floor, the old man followed her, parting at the door. "Alright, I'll leave you to him. But…you do remember the number, don't you?"

Ulquiorra heard a long in-drawn sigh.

"Of course, dad. You worry too much. That's the first thing I learned—you and mom's phone number—" Kurai sighed again, "I know. It'll get easier. Love you too. Bye." She closed the door after a few more silent remonstrances from her father. Ulquiorra opened his eyes and turned slowly to see the back of a petite girl clothed in a peach-colored sweater. A pair of black skinny jeans covered her legs and the heels of her shoes read _Converse_.

Kurai felt his stare and pivoted around slowly, "how are you feeling? Dad said—"

"Trash, where am I?" he let his eyes move from her face to look around the tiny room. A few framed pictures lined the walls across from him, snapshots it seemed. A rounded bowl hung from a peg and chain on the wall near the door, it contained a set of keys on a key ring. The girl didn't even react to his flat statement, she moved to the low sofa where he was, and placed her hand on his forehead.

"Hmm…well you don't seem to have a fever. That's good. You know…that was quite a wound you had and a lot of blood had been lost. Dad was surprised you'd even made it this far without a transfusion."

Her palm was feather light against his skin, her eyes were gentle, worried, though he couldn't fathom why. A human had tended to him? Ulquiorra shied away from her touch, unaware of missing it when she dropped down beside the sofa, her arms wrapped around her knees.

As he sat up, the blanket covering him fell away revealing white bandages concealing his wounds and one even placed against the base of his throat, hiding his empty chain of fate. The girl rocked slowly, watching him curiously, "you shouldn't move too much. You'll start bleeding again." She said knowledgeably.

Ulquiorra pushed away the rest of the blanket, fully intending to get up and leave right then. A wave of dizziness overtook him, he closed his eyes, and soon small hands were pressing him back down.

"Ugh. Why—why're you—"

"Shhhh. Dad told me not to ask you anything or bother you with details…but I'm Kurai. Sanada Kurai. My father is a doctor at the Tokyo hospital—he's the one who dressed your wounds. I'd have done it myself except…" she burst out giggling. Not annoyingly or idiotically as the woman he was supposed to guard in Las Noches did, but strangely. _Almost as if making fun of herself_.

"I _was_ a medical student. Not anymore though—so what's your name? Do you remember it?"

"Schiffer Ulquiorra," he said, saying it the way the Japanese did as in placing the last name first. Kurai thought a moment then brightened, "German isn't it? Schiffer?"

"I do not know."

"You don't know?"

"No."

"You can't…remember?" Kurai had been seemingly excited but now looked away, her face frowning. _What was with her_? Ulquiorra carefully murmured in response, "perhaps." Something flashed in the pale blue depths of her eyes and her forehead furrowed.

"—Just like me."

~~~*~~~

Her statement puzzled him. He wasn't sure why it had affected him so. Kurai moved about that night, preparing him dinner, unquestioning the fact that he was a stranger staying in her apartment. Sometimes she would start humming, low and almost breathy a tune. Unrecognizable to his ears of course, but pleasing nonetheless to the deep silence that was usually his only company.

She placed a low table near him, pushing it from across the room to reside at the sofa's edge. There they dined on rice and vegetables with pieces of fish mixed in. Ulquiorra didn't eat much, knowing his needs were far different than that of a human male. Kurai sat on the floor, in proper fashion; her chopsticks were raised to her lips when he saw fit to ask her something that had been bothering him.

"You're a human. Yet why can you see me?"

"I know what you mean." She slowly lowered the bamboo sticks to her plate, tilting them at an angle. "I see things that aren't really there. I can even touch them as I did you. Dad told me I'd had this ability ever since I was little—he sees things too. Mom doesn't. She doesn't believe me—never did." Kurai picked her chopsticks up again, "I—"

"Why do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Say things in the past tense?"

Kurai dropped her gaze, unable to look his way, "because I really don't remember."

"Remember…?"

"Amnesia. I'm an amnesiac."

~~~Peculiarities about humans~~~

_What was amnesia_? Ulquiorra puzzled, watching her back through the open doorway into the kitchen. The water was running as she scrubbed their plates and cooking utensils with a soapy rag. She had taken off her sweater and deposited it carelessly in a heap on the arm of the sofa. A black t-shirt with a shiny decal design had been beneath the peach hoodie. It revealed sharp muscles, straining as she after drying the plates, stretched upward to tuck them onto the top shelf.

"Let me." Ulquiorra said, taking a few steps closer to her. Kurai looked at him from over her shoulder, "you shouldn't be—" He shot her a look, reminding her of the little fact that she knew _he wasn't an actual living human_. Kurai rolled her eyes and held out the small stack, "don't drop any or mom'll have a fit." He took them from her, and she stood back.

Wonderingly, he considered the fact of the tenderness evident in her voice when she mentioned her parents. It made him feel peculiar then, almost envious of this human and her family, close. Loving. Everything of the things he hadn't ever had. Aizen was his creator yet the god-like man didn't spare tender feelings or bestow parental concern over any of his creations.

Not like the jolly-looking slightly balding man in his sixties whom arrived the next day at nine am to _check up on the patient_. Sleepily Kurai walked into the living room, her tawny hair tousled, her body arching as she stretched before answering the door, to reveal again those fine muscles he'd admired the night past. The black Capri's and black with pink edging shirt did little to hide the toned female form with mild appealing curves to offset the hard wiry body.

"Daaad!"

Kurai tried to block the old man from going in yet he pushed her back and exclaimed loudly at _the progress of the patient_. Ulquiorra was sitting up, bloodless bandages still covered his torso, but he knew that beneath them, the skin was nearly healed.

The old man was rubbing his hands together, a mischievous gleam in his watery blue eyes. Kurai sighed heavily and indicated him, "Doctor Sanada Hasumi, my father, unfortunately. Dad, meet Schiffer Ulquiorra." The man and Arrancar stared at one another. Ulquiorra boredly, the old man curiously.

Kurai went between them, going back to her room off the tiny hallway, "I'll leave you two males to get acquainted." There was a note of irony in her tone and Ulquiorra thought it not off. For as soon as his daughter was out of the room, Hasumi approached him and began running through a list of questions. Mostly concerning health matters of which Ulquiorra had no idea.

_What was blood sugar and how was he supposed to know if it was high_?

The while the old man talked, gesturing sometimes to certain body parts when Ulquiorra looked less than like he understood the stream of medical garble escaping the old man's mouth. In time Kurai reappeared, wearing cut-off jeans at the knees and a layered tissue-t. Her eyes rolled and she walked by them and into the kitchen to prepare breakfast.

"So…" Hasumi looked slyly to Ulquiorra as the sound of water running reached them, "what do you think of my little girl? Has she been treating you well?"

Ulquiorra blinked uncomprehendingly, here they were merely strangers, human at that and yet they were…

"Oh! You misunderstand me!" Hasumi cried a minute later, seeing the confusion on the other's pale face. "I'm not asking you to take my daughter's hand! I'm merely wondering how you found her bedside manner. She was to be following in my footsteps you know," a blue eye winked with paternal pride. Ulquiorra became silent as Kurai leaned in the room.

"Set the table for me, dad. And quit bothering the patient…I can see you're fatiguing him!"

Hasumi chuckled, "that's my girl! The future doctor!"

Kurai snorted and went back to her pan without another comment to enlighten Ulquiorra on the most peculiar subject of amnesia.

~~~Goodbye~~~

It didn't take long at all for him to heal fully. His body, as he stood beneath the showerhead and let the water run down, was immaculate. As unmarked and perfect as the day he had been reborn. Clean clothes awaited him—of the human type of course—Hasumi had left them with a cheery smile and wink, letting Ulquiorra know he meant no offense if indeed the Arrancar found them displeasing.

He studied them for a moment before slipping the shirt over his head—his broken mask lay on the Formica sink. A silver Phoenix pattern rose up from gray swirls imitating flames and a banner heralded: rebirth. He stared at the white boxers for the longest time; unsure of what they were for…after all he had never worn anything beneath the Hakama _before_. Finally bypassing these nuisances he slid on the faded black denim pants, instantly feeling the difference between them and his former loose clothing.

Kurai clapped her hands to her face, unable to suppress a huge grin as he walked out of the bathroom. He noticed her eyes ran down appraisingly over his body and then back up to his face and then frowningly when she saw his still wet hair dripping onto his shoulders.

"You should have used the hairdryer!" She cried and grabbed his used towel, reaching up to vigorously rub his damp locks. She was quite close to him, only inches away, but focused as she was on her task, her mind didn't have the time to consider the inappropriate proximity between their bodies. Neither did he, for things like procreation were unnecessary for an Arrancar.

Kurai finally finished, stepping back; she gave him another once over. Smiling to herself as she liked the end result. "Five days. Five days you've been here and yet now you say you have to leave?" she asked, her smile slipping and losing a bit of its tenderness.

"My place is serving Lord Aizen's side, not dillydallying with you humans," he answered blandly. Kurai's blond eyebrow went up, but then she crossed her arms and smiled, "I can't keep you—"

_She didn't_…

"—It's pretty much a free Country. You can go as long as you know where you're going and have a roof over your head."

…_want him_?

He looked at her then, staring straight into her eyes, trying to read the lie he knew humans to say, "why do you care for _me_ so much? You have no idea what I am, trash."

Kurai blinked, surprised at his question. "Well I—" she began then hesitated. Ulquiorra waited, waited for the lie he knew she was forming in her mind. She looked away, to the dark wood of the flooring, old and in need of replacement, her eyes closed and then opened. Firmly she turned to him again, her mouth slipping into a familiar smile, "I remembered one thing. A single thing from before," she said, "I remembered knowing I never wanted to see another person or _thing_ _alone_. Alone because nobody cared for it—I—" Kurai stopped, her hand pressing against her forehead.

She swayed but Ulquiorra didn't reach out to steady her instead he asked, "Are you…alright?"

Kurai held still for a moment then let her hand fall limply to her side, "yeah. Just a little dizzy is all. I really can't see where you live?"

He shook his head, thinking of his fellow members of the Espada. _Oh they'd just love it if he brought a human girl into their midst, particularly one that their Lord hadn't deemed unfit for spoiling_.

"Spoilsport," she muttered.

They began walking together to the front door; she opened it and as he passed through, patted him lightly on the shoulder.

"Heh. You take care."

Her last words were muffled as she had closed the door immediately after him.

~~~One hundred and twenty hours~~~

Kurai heard him take a few steps farther down the outside hallway and then a ripping sound rattled the doorframe. She flung the door open and found him gone, a space about so high off the ground resealing itself. "So he really wasn't from this world," she mused aloud.

Stepping back inside, she leaned against the sturdy door, her eyes tearing. She bit down on her fist, crumpling into a heap on the floor. Wondering in the vacant recesses of her mind just why she was crying _over a creature she'd known for only one hundred and twenty hours…?_

~~~Las Noches~~~

"Szayel Apporo."

"EEEkk!" the pink-haired Scientist Arrancar cried, jolting on his stool and very nearly throwing a vial of greenish blue fluid across the room. Ulquiorra stared, his hands in his pockets—the clothes given to him by Kurai's father buried in the nethermost regions of his closet—of the white Hakama pants.

"Ulqui-orra? You scared meeee!"

Green eyes glared, "I came to ask a question of you."

"Shoot."

"What is Amnesia and Amnesiac?

Szayel pushed his glasses up higher on his nose and turned on his seat to peer closely at the stoic Arrancar, "Amnesia? Well it's when a person loses their memory. Either totally or partially sometimes due from repression or injury. An Amnesiac is someone whom has amnesia. Why," he looked suddenly suspicious, "do you ask?"

"No reason."

"There's a reason. You're just not telling me," the pink-haired Scientist sounded offended. Ulquiorra began to walk away, having what he wanted to know. Szayel called back to him as he left, "when an amnesiac person regains their former memory…all their previous memories prior to the accident or repression whatever—are lost. Just so you'd know!"

The door slammed loudly but still Ulquiorra heard every word.

~~~To be finis later~~~

A/N: I decided to half it and post the rest later :P Please review.


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